Giorgio Vasari

Giorgio Vasari lived during the 1500s in Italy. While he did produce a significant body of work as an artist, his major contribution to art history came in the form of his written work, “Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects.” This book, published in 1550, detailed the biographies of Renaissance artists including Giotto, Ghiberti, Donatello, Da Vinci, and Michelangelo. Vasari’s text was influential not only as a resource for later scholarship, but also played a major role in the formation of the Renaissance-artist-as-genius archetype.